Tonal Acts by Normal Shed Uses
The material presented on this disc gathers material, written over a period of nearly 20 years, which was drawn together as the repertoire for a number of performances given in various venues in North Wales during 2013 and 2014. For live performances the songs were set for solo voice, and treated acoustic and electric guitars.
The recording process allowed significant opportunity to develop the settings of the material. In some cases little remains but the vocal setting: other pieces have been pushed towards a more conventional rock feel through the addition of bass guitar and percussion. Overall, the recording process allowed development of texture in both vocal and instrumental settings. Conventional and virtual instrumentation were deployed within a digital recording environment.
The collection is given overall shape with reference to the historic LP format as deployed in the rock arena i.e. two “sides” each of approximately 20 minutes duration. This format was chosen as it represented a familiar way of producing and consuming music which both performers recognised as fundamental to their own personal
understanding and development of, and in music.
Thematically, the material mixes meditations on the immanence of middle age with eruptions of reactive, more polemical material referencing the performers’ earlier work.
Scott was responsible for the words and basic musical ideas, which were then fleshed out by him doing vocals, and playing bass, analogue drums, acoustic guitar and various digital instruments, while Alan contributed electric guitar, digital drums and various other digital instruments. They both collaborated on editing, mixing and mastering ideas, which were enacted by Alan.
“Beans & Peaches”, previously performed by Piffco, developed from “Where’s that fiver I lent you?” included on “Songs Your Father Sang“: 1996.
“Coin” was originally recorded as “In Memoriam” on “Caveat Emptor”: 1996
“Lies” and “Popes & Kings”, previously performed by Unun, are re-workings of pieces included on “Kuh”: 2009.
“Snowballs” and “Bees” are re-workings of pieces included on “Nougle”: 2010.
“Roundabout”, “Map”, and “Rust” are re-workings of pieces included on “Some songs about being an old git”: 2010.
“Gone” is a re-working of a piece included on “Duluth is stranger than Brixton”: 2011. The present version was
first released on “Past | Present | Future | 2“ (Pure Pop For Now People 2014).
“Sharks” developed from an idea in “The Last Good Night” included on “Sharks Moving in for the Kill”: 1997.
“Inking” is presented here for the first time..
All recorded and written material © 2015.
Both Alan and Scott were born and continue to live, on earth.
Tracklist
| 1. | Roundabout | 3:29 |
| 2. | Map | 3:43 |
| 3. | Inking | 3:05 |
| 4. | Shark | 2:32 |
| 5. | Beans and Peaches | 3:37 |
| 6. | Gone | 4:26 |
| 7. | Snowballs | 2:31 |
| 8. | Lies | 3:11 |
| 9. | Coin | 2:31 |
| 10. | Bees | 4:00 |
| 11. | Popes and Kings | 2:36 |
| 12. | Rust | 5:59 |
Credits
License
All rights reserved.
Turquoise Coal started in 2012 as a depository for archive recordings of north Wales music. Later that year we became a record label and have released several vinyl LPs, CDs and downloads. Some can be found here, and will be continuously added to over time. All our releases by Spectralate can be found on the group's own site (see link below).